IR thermography diagnostics for the WEST project

To operate long plasma discharge in tokamak equipped with actively cooled plasma facing components (PFC), infrared (IR) thermography is a key diagnostic. Indeed IR data are used for both PFC safety monitoring, to avoid material degradation and water leak, and various physics studies on plasma-wall interaction. The IR monitoring is becoming even more crucial with today metallic PFCs. This is the case for the WEST project (Tungsten (W) Environment for Steady State Tokamak), which aims at installing a W.divertor in Tore Supra (TS), in order to operate the 1st tokamak with a full W actively cooled divertor in long plasma discharges. The IR thermography system for the WEST project described in this paper will consist of a set of 3 different diagnostics: (1) Six cameras located in upper ports viewing the full W divertor, which reuse a part of the existing diagnostic of TS. (2) Five novel views located behind the inner protection panels for the antennas monitoring, based on an innovative imaging fibers bundle technology. (3) A tangential wide angle view located in a median port, for the upper divertor and first wall monitoring. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.